Petrelis Files

Obama's Favor to Gays:
Inviting Warren to the Inauguration

A golden opportunity presented on a silver platter to the gay community is how I look at President-Elect Obama's invitation to the homophobic Rev. Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church of California to deliver the invocation at his inauguration next month.

Since we lost on Prop 8, Equality California and its parent organization the Human Rights Campaign have urged doing what was abysmally missing from the campaign to retain gay marriage rights - making ourselves visible and telling our lives' stories. Great advice EQCA and HRC threw overboard leading up to the election, and advice that ought to be part of the official gay leadership's response to Obama choosing Warren.

Just as I saw during the campaign when California gay leaders Lorri Jean and Geoff Kors refused an invitation the YES side to a televised, and went out of their way to not debate anti-gay opponents, instead, you'll pardon the expression, only preaching to the choir, I now see Democratic Party gay leaders loudly objecting and going on the defensive. Yawn.

I've seen this maneuver too many times to be anything but cynical about it. HRC expresses outrage in a press release, Kors refuses to attend the inauguration and show gay visibility, maybe even tell a story or two about fags and dykes, Kors doesn't consult with the CA gays to see if we want our leader to be there for us or reject the invitation, or maybe donate the precious ticket to a gay youth leader with Join the Impact, gay bloggers make excellent comparisons to inviting anti-Semites and racists to the inauguration.

And the loving and defiant lives of America's gay citizens are again not promoted by our groups during this controversy. Here we are presented with a solid media platform, and we play the wounded victim role again.

We are not ready with an ad campaign showing the gay couples in California, my friends and neighbors, whose marriages are in danger of being outlawed by the state, and never mind ads showing the kids of married gays who would suffer their parents divorcing by government regulation.

No lessons have been learned since the Prop 8 failure. The same mistakes from the campaign continue to plague the gays.

We are shocked, shocked, that a politician and a religious figure aren't standing up for us, as if this has never happened before, and we have no visibility strategy in place, nor one in the works, to show our genuine selves to the nation.

I'm happy Obama invited Warren to deliver the invocation. Numb to the usual gay Democratic victim card being played.

Which of my leaders will initiate a discussion with Warren, who will play a significant role in future battles over gay marriage and our other struggles? Who among the brave gay leaders, either cowardly returning inauguration invitations or attending the event, will pick up the phone on January 21 and begin a conversation with Warren?

Gays talking to our enemies in the religious community. That's the kind of politically independent gay leadership I'd like to see.

If we're not willing to speak with our enemies, then with whom will the gays make peace?